Thursday, February 16, 2017

Monsieur Vogue

"‘Make America great again.’ A lot of people think that means make America white again.”

I say that a friend of mine, the writer David Israel, is now calling it the Whites-Only House.

“People are really afraid of these dark, dark institutions of bigotry and anti-Semitism that have come out from under the rocks like creepy snakes and come up to rear their heads up like cobras,” André agrees.

This is from Maureen Dowd's interview with "Monsieur Vogue," André Leon Talley, the former American editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, in a recent article in the NYT containing references to "Proustian madeleines" and "doppelganger" just to assure you know she's serious. Nonetheless, it is an excellent article with surprisingly cautious nuance regarding Trump, Melania and their opponents.
But these quotes are instructive.

This election and post-election has been filled with dark recriminations, inferences and worries. Given that Trump is a loud, obnoxious blowhard, is he a racist? After all, many racists are loud, obnoxious blowhards. Is he a malignant bigot? The press assumes so. A recent interview with an admittedly professionally controversial activist included talk about Nazi salutes and KKK affiliations. Is any of this real? "A lot of people think that means make America white again." Is that real--or even remotely fair? What about "I say that a friend of mine, the writer David Israel, is now calling it the Whites-Only House"--is that fair?

Trump might be a rabid racist--but we do not know that. One might argue that voting for a guy we know little about is a little crazy--but that argument is over now. These assertions are little more than innuendo. Rumor. Conclusions from vague generalizations; belief about what he believes. It is strangely reminiscent of the Thought Police. And, weirdly, it is the mechanism of bigotry.